Endelwyne

Only Gods survive the fall of Empires

The Wild Hunt

The Wild Hunt

Summary

The Wild Hunt is the name of the Totem-God that leads the The Horde. He encompasses all that it wild and chaotic in nature.

Background

Little is know of the origins of the Wild Hunt. It is believe that the tribal races and wild monsters of the great North have always worshiped the God. There are few depictions of the god and no known totems exist due to the tribal and nomadic nature of his followers. In the rare cases he is depicted he is shown to be a wild assembly of various animals. He always has the head of a great stag.

There seems to be some tie between the Wild Hunt and two constellations, the Hunter and the Reaper.

Beliefs

His priests also tend to follow the path of the Sun and Moon. There are four great periods of prayer in Wild Hunt lands, Sunrise and Set and Moon rise and set. Camps are typically laid out around a great circle. The Priests align the circle of stones to the position of the rising and setting every day, creating a bisecting line across the circle.

Villagers are expected to come and watch the ceremonies and be silent while the priest adjusts the circle, using stone or sometimes wood.

On the Great Plains, which is now the domain of the Hunt, no building is allowed. The tenet is that no building shall break the dirt. Humans and others intelligent races that need shelter live in collapsible yurts that rest on the ground but are not staked to it.

The Centaurs are the great enforcers of the Wild Hunt. Their horse bodies are between one and half and two times greater than a normal horse, meaning that their human torsos are also scaled by the same amount. They are powerful fighters and hunters. Their great bows easily drove arrows straight through the warriors of the Assarisan during the Great Invasion.

Powers

The Wild Hunt holds dominion over the entire Great Plains, having completely eliminated the Assarisan Empire and destroying or de-populating their cities. It is rumored that the Wild Hunt led the Horde because the great cities of the Assarisans had gotten so large that they were an offense to his very nature.

In his domain monsters and animals have reverted to their old ways. In the 75 years since the Great Invasion the great herds of camels, mammoths and woolly rhinoceros have returned. Monsters have also flourished, incursions of goblins and orc and reportedly becoming common.

Humans living in his domain have also started to change. Report of tribal people that have embraced the Hunt and follow it have taken on feral traits, in some cases becoming shape shifters. Other travelers have reported humans they have called Goliaths, great men nearly 8 feet tall, with hides as tough as leather.

Motivations

At the Battle of the Pass the Horde was stopped before it could enter the mountains. They were stopped by an intervention by the Elves and finally retreated. What is not clear is whether the Horde was simply trying to pursue the refugees from the Assarisan Empire to finish their invasion, or if the intent was to invade the mountains as well.

For now the Wild Hunt and his followers seem content to rule the plains and return it to its pre-historic state.